Peter Haggett (1933- ), British geographer, best known for his pioneering role in introducing quantitative techniques and general systems theory to the study of the subject in Britain. Born in Pewlett, Somerset, and educated at Cambridge University, he first worked as an assistant lecturer in the geography department of University College, London, before moving in 1957 to Cambridge where he remained as a lecturer until he was appointed Professor of Urban and Regional Geography at the University of Bristol in 1966. He has held visiting fellowships and professorships in Brazil, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. Haggett has been the recipient of many awards, including the Prix Internationale Géographique (1991). He has also contributed actively to public life, in particular as a member of the South West Economic Planning Council (1967-1972) and as governor of the Centre for Environmental Studies (1975-1978). Haggett was made a CBE in 1993.

He first came to prominence in the 1960s when, often in conjunction with Richard Chorley, he produced a succession of books that helped to give geography a new direction, ushering in what became known as the “quantitative revolution” in the subject. Although many contemporary geographers have rejected such a purely theoretical approach, their influence is still felt. The first of these books, Locational Analysis in Human Geography (1965), was a seminal review of the developing use of theoretical models by geographers in the United States and Sweden. It effectively updated the study of the subject at British universities and, a few years later, formed the basis of the modern study of human geography in schools. Models in Geography (1967) and Network Analysis in Geography (1969), produced with Chorley, followed. Together with Chorley, Haggett had earlier organized the Madingley Hall lectures designed to encourage the introduction of modern geographical education into British schools and colleges.

His best-known book is probably Geography: A Modern Synthesis (1972), which combines both physical and human geography within a single volume, and stresses the synthesizing role of the subject as a vehicle for understanding the relationships between people and their environment. It is still used a textbook in many British schools and North American universities. More recently, Haggett has made a major contribution to the study of the geography of diseases, reflected in several important publications, such as Spatial Aspects of Influenza Epidemics (with A. D. Cliff, 1986); the Atlas of Disease Distributions (with A. D. Cliff, 1988); the London International Atlas of AIDS (with M. Smallman-Raynor, 1992); and Island Epidemics (with A. D. Cliff and M. Smallman-Raynor, 2000). Haggett’s Geography: A Global Synthesis (2001) is a reworking of the “modern synthesis” of 1972. The Geographer’s Art (1990) presents a semi-autobiographical account of the development of geography as a discipline.